The Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup is coming back for its third season starting in April and the automaker spent several days last week evaluating young drivers before selecting 25 to take the wheel this year. Of the 25 drivers that will compete, 16 are new to the series and nine have participated in previous outings. As it has in the first two seasons, the opening round will be at VIRginia International Raceway on April 23.

Last weekend, Speed TV began airing the 2009 season of the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup on Saturdays and that will continue through the month of December. Those broadcasts however, only show the on-track action from green flag to checker. In motorsports, there is just as much action behind the scenes as there is during the competition and, come January 18, Speed the Discovery Channel, Science Channel, Planet Green, and HD Theater will run a 60-minute, behind-the-scenes documentary on the 2009 season

Back in October, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI cup wrapped up its second season in fine fashion during the Petit Le Mans weekend at Road Atlanta. While the ten-race series was not broadcast live, cameras from Speed TV were on hand for each event. If you, like most people, missed the races, now is your chance to catch up with some of the best racing out there as Speed gets ready to start airing the 2009 series on December 6. The first four 30-minute races of this year's series will be aired back-to-ba

Will Timmy Megenbier be able to reproduce his diesel-powered success in the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup in the natural-gas-powered Scirocco Cup in Europe next year? The answer lies only in the young driver's hands, now that he has announced that he wants to "continue his climb of the motorsports ladder," (as VW put it) in Europe. The Scirocco Cup uses Bio-Clean natural gas to power Scirocco "R" models and is now "the world's most eco-friendly one-make racing series." Compared to the vehicles i

Regular readers will already be familiar with the happenings of the 2008 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup season; we've been bringing you updates throughout the year on the drivers, the races and, of course, the cars. The race versions were outfitted with 170hp 2.0L TDI engines and six speed DSG transmissions, but the closest most drivers will be able to get to these versions is the $26,995 Jetta TDI Cup Street Edition.

Volkswagen kicked off its Jetta TDI Cup race series a couple of weeks ago at VIRginia International Raceway with a close fought and exciting battle to the finish. This weekend they are heading north to another of the toughest tracks in North America at Mosport Park, north-east of Toronto. The Jettas will be racing as part of a program that includes the Mazda MX-5 Cup and the Canadian Touring Car Championship, among other races. This race will be something of a homecoming for the four drivers in

Several hours after yesterday's inaugural Jetta TDI Cup race, VW informed us that although Speed TV did record the entire race, it won't actually be on TV for a while. The cable network that seems to be almost all NASCAR all the time, will record all the races this year along with background on the program and drivers. At the end of the series they will broadcast a documentary covering the whole series.

The activity going here at VIRginia International Raceway this weekend definitely does not qualify as hyper-miling. In fact it is anything but. The thirty young racers competing in the Volkswagen Jetta TDI cup are hustling their cars around this beautiful 3.27 mile long circuit as fast as they can. But they are still doing it in a relatively thrifty manner. The racing Jettas are putting out 170hp which is enough to average over 87mph here. While most race cars get mileage in the single digits an

Diesel racers have had a lot of success in the recent past. But what happens when you have diesel racing diesel? We'll find out soon. For 2008, Volkswagen is replacing the current GTI cup with the Jetta TDI Cup. As the name implies, the new series will use the new Jetta TDI diesel sedan. For racing purposes, the 2.0L diesel will be rated at 170 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque pumping through the standard six-speed DSG gearbox. The suspension and brakes will be beefed up for track use and all the usua

This past weekend, Volkswagen held their driver selection event for the inaugural Jetta TDI cup series out at Firebird raceway in Phoenix, AZ. Volkswagen evaluated 54 potential participants based on their driving skills, but other factors were taken into account as well. Since the drivers are also expected to help promote Volkswagen and their diesel technology, they had to demonstrate their communication skills and ability to work with the media. In the end thirty drivers aged 16-26 were chosen